VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, August 26, 2017 — This is a virtual meeting organized by several organizations across Canada, including Calgarians Against War and Intervention, that brings together activists and analysts from Canada and Venezuela on the recent developments that aim at regime change in Venezuela.

Venezuela has seen violence by rightwing groups associated to the Venezuelan opposition that has caused more than 100 deaths since last April. The U.S. and Canadian governments have not condemned the violence; on the contrary have incited it with open endorsement of the opposition. The U.S. government has in addition issued several rounds of sanctions against Venezuelan officials, and President Trump has recently declared that a “military option” is still a possibility.

The latest White House set of sanctions on August 25 is an escalation of pressure on the Maduro government since it aims at chocking the State-owned oil company PDVSA by curtailing its access to international financing.

U.S. policy of aggression against Venezuela has grossly given tacit support to the right-wing “opposition” that has used violent actions as the main tool for regime change. President Trump’s tighter sanctions on top of the recent threat of military intervention in Venezuela are totally against accepted norms of no interference in internal affairs of sovereign nations.

The Canadian government has heeded to U.S. demands and has intervened in the affairs of the sovereign Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela with unfounded accusations against the Maduro government of breaking the constitutional order. President Maduro has taken the step of calling for a Constituent Assembly as the only option to restore peace in the country.

The international Venezuela solidarity movement has reacted with calls of “U.S. Hands off Venezuela” and has issued statements and declarations for wide distribution. However, the mainstream media ignores those sentiments. This event hopes to bring the reality of the situation to public attention.

This livestream event has three main goals:

Bring about objective evidence of the reality of the Bolivarian Revolution;